After 25+ years working in high-tech marketing – talking with hundreds of customers and writing hundreds of case studies – customer success is still the thing that gets me truly excited. Happy customers bring me so much joy because they are the physical manifestation of how successful you are as an organization, of how good you are at delivering real and measurable impact and value to the market.

 

There’s so much change and transformation in high-tech, but the fundamentals of customer success remain the same: there is a challenge, a decision, a solution and fingers crossed, great results. Customer success remains simple, pure and organic. It’s something you can’t buy and something you can’t create. When satisfied customers are willing to go on the record touting their experience with your company it’s because they want to, and that’s because you’ve solved their challenges and delivered on your promise.

 

Lastly, I love talking with happy customers because if you ask the right questions in the right way, they want to tell their story and share their experience with others facing similar challenges.

 

I will leave you with my secret for conducting the best customer interviews: don’t conduct an interview, have a conversation. Conversations vs. interviews often yield more insightful and valuable information because the customer is relaxed and enjoying themselves. Of course, you should have a list of questions to guide the discussion. But if you’ve done your homework and you’re really listening to what they are saying vs. getting ready to ask your next question, you’ll end up having an in-depth, engaging conversation that is much more satisfying an valuable for you and for your customer.